his affability, simple habits, and kindly good-nature. His tall and
slender person, thin face, and aquiline nose, were striking features,
and not easily forgotten when once seen. He had been known to mend with
his own hands, after a campaign, the old grey coat he usually wore, and
this was but a typical act of his. And the proud opposition he offered
to a plundering nobility quite won for him the confidence of the people.
The great cities stood on good terms with him, and sought his friendship
and aid. Thus did the Alsacian towns seek his help against the bishops
of Strasburg; Zurich against the barons of Regensberg and Toggenburg. On
many an occasion did he render remarkable service in this way, of which
one instance must suffice. The barons of Regensberg had a castle on the
Uto, a mountain towering above Zurich, and from thence often sent men to
waylay and rob the citizens who chanced to pass that way. Rudolf hit on
a crafty device. Riding up the Uetliberg with thirty men of Zurich, he
placed behind each man a companion, and so came to the gate of the
castle. The garrison despising a band apparently so small, rushed out of
the gates upon them. But great was their terror when suddenly the men
riding behind appeared in sight, and, taking to flight, they left the
castle at the mercy of the strange attacking party. The place was
levelled with the ground. Rudolf was asked by a body of free men of Uri
to be their umpire in a dispute, and he actually sat in judgment on the
matter, under the linden at Altorf, a fact which bears witness to his
popularity amongst the people. Yet, with many amiable qualities, Rudolf
was covetous, ambitious, and violent. Bent on raising his family to
greatness, he reveals a most mercenary spirit, and shows himself
unscrupulous in the pursuit of gain. It has been shown above, how he had
seized the Kyburg lands; he also made himself guardian of Anna of
Kyburg, and when she came of age, united her to his cousin, Eberhard of
Habsburg. Thus was founded the new House of Kyburg-Burgdorf. He obtained
from them Anna's heritage in the Aargau, besides Zug, Art, Willisan,
Sempach, &c., as well as lands in the Forest Cantons. He was one of
those chieftains who profited immensely by the distraction during the
interregnum.
Whilst engaged in storming Basel, whose bishop had encroached on the
Alsacian territories, the news was brought to Rudolf (October 1, 1273)
that he had been elected King of Germany, at Frankfort, and, raising the
siege, he at once proceeded to his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Rudolf's influence greatly altered the policy of Germany. He made his
peace with Gregory X. at Lausanne in 1275, and entered into a close
alliance with him. Thus an end was put to the unfortunate quarrels with
the Papal power, and the German king was set at liberty to follow his
own ambitions, aims, and plans. He resigned all claim to Italy, and so
far also to the imperial dignity, which had once been of such splendour,
and had indeed been almost equivalent to the government of the whole
world. Sober, cautious, and matter-of-fact as he was, Rudolf cared not
for merely ideal greatness, and devoted himself to following more
practical aims. The empire had been impoverished by the late crisis, and
by the different calamities which had befallen it; and the German
princes had risen to positions of defiant independence. Seeing
beforehand that the authority of the crown must be founded on the wealth
and hereditary possessions of the sovereign, Rudolf made the
aggrandisement of his family the chief object of his career. Fortune's
favourite he seemed indeed to be, and gained a great victory over his
opponent to the throne, Ottokar of Bohemia (1278), and secured from him
the Duchy of Austria, with Steyermark. This he vested as a new
possession in his own family.
Notwithstanding the extension of his power eastward, he likewise
continued his aggressive policy in Switzerland. He forced from Philip of
Savoy the cession of Payerne, Murten, &c., and waged war with Bern,
which held to Savoy, refusing to pay the royal taxes (1279). Making
ample use of his exalted position and unlimited power, he lost no
opportunity of buying up princes and religious-houses in pecuniary
difficulties. He compelled the Abbots of St. Gall, Alrich of Guettingen,
and William of Montfort, to cede to him lands and farms, forcing on them
as steward a worthless fellow who was a devoted adherent of the
Habsburgs. When the male line of Rapperswyl died out, the fiefs which
should have passed to the Abbey of St. Gall, he gave to his own sons.
And, taking advantage of the pecuniary straits of the monastery of
Nurbach, he obtained by one means or another Lucerne, which belonged to
the abbey, as well as numerous farms reaching into the Forest Cantons.
The stewardship of Einsiedeln and Pfaeffers likewise fell to his share.
Many more instances might be given to show how Rudolf's clever and
unscrupulous scheming extended his power all over the midlands and the
eastern districts, and how grievously his heavy hand was felt throughout
the country. Yet the famous Habsburgs, able, warlike, and energetic as
they were, met with one obstacle to their progress which they were
unable to remove, and against which all their plans came to nought---the
love of freedom innate in the Swiss peoples.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] For more complete account of the Hohenstaufen see Freeman's "Holy
Roman Empire," Frederick I., II.
[24] The story runs that Peter allowed the town to ask a favour in
return for past services, and the witty men of Bern at once begged for
the restitution of their lost liberty. Henceforth Peter was regarded as
the benefactor and second founder of the city.
[25] Tradition says that one of their ancestors, Radbot, hunting in the
Aargau, lost his favourite hawk, and found it sitting on the ridge of
the Wuelpelsberg. Being delighted with the view, Radbot built a castle
there, and called it _Hawk Castle_, Habichtsburg, or Habsburg.
X.
THE CONFEDERATION, OR EIDGENOSSENSCHAFT.
(1231-1291.)
In the present chapter we have to attempt the task of separating truth
from fiction, at all times, perhaps, a difficult, and often an
impossible, undertaking, in matters of history. This chapter indeed
splits itself naturally into _Wahrheit_ and _Dichtung_. Fortunately the
stories of Tell and the three Eidgenossen are everywhere well known, and
will need but little description at our hands.
A lake of exquisite beauty extends between the Forest Cantons, and, so
to speak, links them together, the whole forming a singularly
picturesque stretch of country. Separated from the sister cantons and
from the outside world, each of these little states formed a world of
its own. The lake was the common outlet, and the rallying-point for the
peoples of the secluded valleys. The various armlets into which it
branches, like the districts which lie about them, have each their
peculiar charm. Of these cantons Unterwalden has a pastoral character,
and attracts attention by its beautiful verdure--velvety slopes, green
meads, clusters of nut-trees in the lower parts, orchards of fruit
trees, the country dotted everywhere with sunburnt huts, forming a _tout
ensemble_ truly idyllic. Schwyz is a canton of similar natural
appearance, with green pastures and somewhat gentler slopes, but broad
terraces with their red cottages line the valley. Above the chief town
of the same name, which nestles at the head of the dale it commands,
shining, dazzlingly white with its snug whitewashed houses, rise to the
sky the torn but imposing pyramids of the two Myten. Uri is _par
excellence_ the highland district amongst the three little states.
Towering mountains and inaccessible rocks hem in a strip of water, and
give that wondrous hue which makes the charm of Uri lake.
The inhabitants are of the Alpine mould. Sinewy, robust, quick, shrewd,
they are persevering, fearless, bold, and self-reliant; they are yet
simple in their habits, artless in manner, pious, and strongly
conservative, each people having however its own characteristic points
of difference. Ever exposed to danger, their struggles with nature for
the supply of their daily wants have increased their strength of body,
brought out their mettle, and quickened their natural intelligence. Thus
it was not the love of innovation, or even of reform, that led them to
form their "League of Perpetual Alliance," in 1291. They entered into
the Confederation but to check the aggressions of the Habsburgers.
Such is the district and such the race from which arose the three famed
Eidgenossen, Walter Fuerst von Attinghausen, Werner Staufacher, and
Arnold von Melchthal, who, on the "Ruetli," swore a solemn oath to save
their country from rulers shameless as they were cruel.
[Illustration: THALER OF THREE CANTONS--URI, SCHWYZ, AND UNTERWALDEN
[SANCTUS MARTINUS EPISCOPUS].
(_By Dr. Imhoof._)]
Tradition reports that King Albrecht, son of Rudolf (1298-1308), greatly
oppressed the three Waldstaetten, doing his best to reduce the people to
the condition of bondmen. To the various stewards or bailiffs whom he
set over them, he gave strict orders to keep well in check the people of
the Forest Cantons. These overseers grew into covetous and cruel
tyrants, who taxed, fined, imprisoned, and reviled the unfortunate
inhabitants. To complain to the monarch was useless, as he refused to
listen. One of these stewards, or lieutenant-governors, was Gessler, and
a particularly haughty and spiteful governor he was. Passing on one
occasion through Steinen (Schwyz), he was struck by the sight of a fine
stone-built house, and filled with envy he inquired of Werner
Staufacher, who happened to be the owner, whose it was. Fearing the
governor's anger the wealthy proprietor replied cautiously, "The holding
is the king's, your grace's, and mine." "Can we suffer the peasantry to
live in such fine houses?" exclaimed Gessler, scornfully, as he rode
away. Landenberg, another of these "unjust stewards," at Sarnen, being
informed that a rich farmer in the Melchi (Unterwalden), had a fine pair
of oxen, sent his man for them. Young Arnold, of Melchthal, the son of
the farmer, was standing by when the animals were being unyoked, and,
enraged at the sight, raised his stick, and struck the governor's
servant a blow, breaking one of his fingers. But being afraid of the
governor's wrath, young Arnold fled. So Landenberg seized the old
father, brought him to his castle, and had his eyes put out.
Werner Staufacher was consumed by secret grief, and his wife, guessing
what was on his mind, gave him such counsel that, nerving himself to
action, he went over to Uri and Unterwalden to look for kindred spirits
and fellow-sufferers. At the house of Walter Fuerst, of Attinghausen
(Uri), he met with the young man from the Melchi, to whom he was able to
tell the sad news that the old father had been blinded by Landenberg.
Here the three patriots unburdened to each other their sorrowing hearts,
and vowed a vow to free their country from oppressors, and restore its
ancient liberties. Gradually opening their plans to their kindred and
friends, they arranged nightly meetings on the Ruetli, a secluded Alpine
mead above the Mytenstein, on Uri lake. Meeting in small bands so as
not to excite suspicion, they deliberated as to how best their
deliverance might be effected. On the night of the 17th of November,
1307, Walter Fuerst, Arnold of Melchthal, and Werner Staufacher, met on
the Ruetli, each taking with him ten intimate associates. Their hearts
swelling with love for their country and hatred against tyranny, these
three-and-thirty men solemnly pledged their lives for each other and for
their fatherland.
Raising their right hands towards heaven the three leaders took God and
the saints to witness that their solemn alliance was made in the
spirit--"One for all, and all for one." At that moment the sun shot his
first rays across the mountain-tops, kindling in the hearts of these
earnest men the hopes of success.
In the meantime a very remarkable event had happened at the town of
Altorf in Uri. Gessler had placed a hat on a pole in the market-place,
with strict orders that passers-by should do it reverence, for he wished
to test their obedience. William Tell scorned this piece of over-bearing
tyranny, and proudly marched past without making obeisance to the hat.
He was seized, and Gessler riding up, demanded why he had disobeyed the
order. "From thoughtlessness," he replied, "for if I were witty my name
were not Tell." The governor, in a fury, ordered Tell to shoot an apple
from the head of his son, for Gessler knew Tell to be a most skilful
archer, and, moreover, to have fine children. Tell's entreaties that
some other form of punishment should be substituted, for this were of no
avail. Pierced to the heart the archer took two arrows, and, placing
one in his quiver, took aim with the other, and cleft the apple. Foiled
in his design, Gessler inquired the meaning of the second arrow. Tell
hesitated, but on being assured that his life would be spared, instantly
replied, "Had I injured my child, this second shaft should not have
missed thy heart." "Good!" exclaimed the enraged governor, "I have
promised thee thy life, but I will throw thee into a dungeon where
neither sun nor moon shall shine on thee." Tell was chained, and placed
in a barge, his bow and arrow being put at his back. As they rowed
towards Axenstein, suddenly their arose a fearful storm, and the crew
fearing they would be lost, suggested that Tell, an expert boatman,
should save them. Gessler had him unbound, and he steered towards
Axenberg, where there was a natural landing-stage formed by a flat
rock--_Tellenplatte_. Seizing his bow and arrows he flung the boat
against the rock, and leapt ashore, leaving its occupants to their fate.
Woe betide him, however, should the governor escape death on the lake!
Tell hurried on to Schwyz, and thence to the "hollow way" near Kusnach,
through which Gessler must come if he returned to his castle. Hiding in
the thicket lining the road, Tell waited, and presently seeing the
tyrant riding past, took aim, and shot him through the heart. Gessler's
last words were, "This is Tell's shaft."
Thus runs the old story. The question naturally arises, What of all this
is truth, and what fiction? just as it will in the case of Winkelried
and others. The question is easier to ask than to answer, at least in
the very limited space at our disposal. The truth is, this question has
been for half a century the subject of controversy always lively, often
passionate and violent. Some authorities are for making a clean sweep of
all traditional annals, and all semi-mythical national heroes. Others,
no less able and conscientious, and no less learned, have re-admitted
tradition to investigation, and have made it their special care to pick
out the historical grain from the chaff of fiction. It is impossible
within the limits of our space to discuss the merits of the numerous
chronicles, and popular songs and plays, in which the traditions of the
Tell period are preserved. Suffice it to say, that the "White Book of
Sarnen" (1470), naive and artless as is its tone, is the most
trustworthy; that of the "Swiss Herodotus," the patriotic Tschudi
(1570), the most fascinating and most skilfully penned. The work of the
latter is mainly a series of gleanings from the "White Book," together
with additional pictures from Tschudi's own pencil. He combined and
supplied dates and minor details, and cast the whole in a mould
apparently so historical that it became an authority for Joh von Mueller,
the great Swiss historian of the eighteenth century. And the immortal
Schiller deeply stirred by the grand epic, produced his magnificent
drama, "William Tell."
It hardly needs to be said in these days that whilst no one thinks of
taking these beautiful old-world stories literally, yet few of us would
care to toss them contemptuously and entirely on one side. Truly they
have a meaning, if not exactly that which was once accepted. In the
present instance they represent and illustrate a long epoch during
which a high-spirited people were engaged in establishing a
confederation, and maintaining it against a powerful enemy--one long
effort to secure emancipation from Habsburg tyranny--an epoch which
opened with the acquisition of a charter of liberties for Uri in 1231,
and closed with the brilliant victory of Morgarten in 1315.
It remains now to show briefly what may be considered the authentic
history of the period, that is, the history as found in authentic
documents.
And first, it is clearly absurd to suppose that the three Forest Cantons
sprang suddenly into existence as democracies. Feudalism had spread its
net over the Waldstaetten as elsewhere in Switzerland and Europe
generally. But the inborn love of freedom amongst the "freemen" of the
three cantons was intensified by two things, the secluded Alpine life
and the tyranny and aggressiveness of the Habsburgs. The inhabitants of
the Forest were Alamanni, who, in the seventh century, had moved into
the higher Alpine regions, the immigration into those regions being
greatly promoted by a decree of Charlemagne, that whoever should
cultivate land there with his own hands should be the owner thereof. But
besides these farmer freemen, land was taken up by religious-houses, and
by the secular grandees, who claimed the soil cultivated by their serfs,
bondsmen, and dependants of all kinds. By the bounty of Louis the
German, the "Gotteshausleute" (God's-house-people), had become of great
importance in Uri; in 853 that monarch had bestowed his royal lands in
Uri, with everything appertaining thereto, on the Abbey of our Lady at
Zurich, an abbey founded for his daughters. Beneath the mild rule of
these royal ladies the inhabitants had acquired great independence, and
had shared with their mistress the high privilege of the
"Reichsfreiheit," which saved their lands from being mortgaged, or from
falling under the power of vassal princes. Besides the Lady Abbess,
there were other proprietors in Uri--the Maison Dieu of Wettingen, the
barons of Rapperswyl, and other high-born or noble families, and,
lastly, a body of "freemen."
This scattered and various society was knit into one close
boundary-association by the possession of the "Almend," a stretch of
land common to all, according to the old German custom--to free and
unfree, rich and poor, noble and serf, who were brought together in
council for deliberation. These assemblies gave rise to the political
gatherings of the "Landsgemeinde."
Now by a decree of the Emperor Frederick II., Uri was severed from the
jurisdiction of Zurich Abbey in 1218, and placed under the control of
Habsburg, who had succeeded to the governorship of Zurichgau, a district
which then included the three Forest states. "Reichsfreiheit" was lost,
and the inhabitants, fearing their state would fall into the hands of
the Habsburgs, applied for protection from Henry, son of Frederick II.,
then at variance with the Habsburg family. He complied with their
request, and on the 26th of May, 1231, granted them a charter of
liberties, restored "Reichsfreiheit," and received them into the pale of
the empire. Uri was now under the direct control of the monarch, and the
local authority was vested in an _Ammann_ chosen from the native
families. An imperial representative appeared twice a year in the
country to hold his half-yearly sessions, and to collect the imperial
taxes. When Rudolf of Habsburg rose to the imperial throne, he
recognized fully the validity of the Uri charter. However a charter was
but little check on the monarchical tyranny, and we find the country
exasperated by Rudolf's grinding taxation.
The inhabitants of Schwyz were no less bold, resolute, and energetic,
than those of Uri, and no less averse to falling into the hands of the
Habsburgs. Here the freemen predominated, and owned the largest portion
of the country. There is not space to tell of their long quarrel with
the monks of Einsiedeln respecting some forest lands. Suffice it to say
that, after a stout stand for their rights, they were ordered to share
the _corpus delicti_, the forest, with their opponents. During the
quarrels between Rome and the Hohenstaufen, Schwyz staunchly upheld the
cause of Frederick II., but the wavering policy of Rudolf of the junior
line, Habsburg-Laufenburg, was a strong temptation to separate
themselves from him (1239). They sent letters, messengers, and most
likely auxiliaries, to Frederick, when he was besieging Faenza with the
view of recovering the Lombard cities, and begged for the protection of
the empire. Frederick expressed his gratification that the freemen of
Schwyz should voluntarily place themselves under his protection, and
sent them a charter similar to that of Uri (1240)--to "his faithful
men"--by which they obtained the "Reichsfreiheit," and an assurance that
they should not be severed from the empire.
A very few years later we hear of the first federal union of which we
have any certain knowledge. The great quarrel between the emperor and
the Pope, and the flight of the latter to Lyons, had set Europe on fire.
Schwyz took up arms to defend the founder of its liberties, and entered
into an alliance with Uri and Unterwalden--and even Lucerne--to throw
off the yoke of the younger Habsburg line. War raged fiercely in the
valleys of the Forest and by Lake Lucerne, till the Popish party was
brought to bay, and the overseer driven from the Habsburg castle. We do
not know the result of this insurrection; it closed no doubt with the
death of Rudolf and Frederick in 1249-50.
It is to this period of the insurrection doubtless that the stories of
Tell, the oath on the Ruetli, &c., apply most clearly. They are
reminiscences probably of some forgotten episodes of the campaigns. Had
the annalists connected the stories with these times instead of with the
reign of Albrecht, their validity could hardly have been contested.
When Rudolf III. of Habsburg-Austria became emperor, and had bought from
the younger branch of his house the estates and titles in the
Waldstaetten, he drew Schwyz most closely to his family. He refused to
confirm Frederick's charter on the plea that that monarch had been
excommunicated. The magistrates were officers of his own; he gathered
the taxes in his own name, and, in 1278, assigned them as dowry to the
English bride of his favourite son, Hartmann. Schwyz did not feel
comfortable under all this, and stood on its guard.
Unterwalden[26], the lowland district of the Forest, was politically
quite behind the times. It was exceedingly fertile, and was much in
request, and in the thirteenth century was parcelled out amongst
religious-houses, great nobles, and lesser freemen. The Habsburgs being
not only the greatest proprietors, but also stewards of the
religious-houses, naturally held sovereign sway. It was only by the aid
of friendly neighbours indeed that Unterwalden could hold its own
against such powerful masters, and of all its neighbours the men of
Schwyz were not only the best organized, politically, but the most
energetic and far-seeing. That the Schwyzers took the lead in the
emancipation of the district is pretty clear from the name that was
given to the newly-formed state by surrounding lands, and by the
Austrians after the battle of Morgarten.